Architecture of Science

I was invited to the Natural History Museum's showcasing of its new Cocoon structure - an organically shaped, white, seven floor high 'pod' encased by the Darwin Centre, the Museum's new extension to the west of the Cromwell Road entrance. The Darwin Centre is the first new build on the site since 1881 when the Museum moved here - it cost £78 million and took three years to build. It is quite impressive, although not totally original. Designed by C. F. Møller Architects of Denmark, architecturally it echoes other iconic scientific institutions - the dome above the Smithsonian Natural History Museum on the Washington Mall,but more specifically the renowned Butterfly Pavilion contained within:

...as well as a curious experiment at the Centre of the Cell, an interactive science experience for schools, designed by Will Alsop within the Medical Research Building of Queen Mary College in east London:

The pod shape, the organic cocoon, is obviously an inspiration for scientific architecture worldwide. The Cocoon enwraps the huge Spirit collection - so called not because of any ghostly Victorian reminiscence but because the 20 million historic specimens of botany and entomology (plants and insects to you and me) were and are conserved in 'spirit' - jars containing preservation fluids. It must have been the most inflammable piece of real estate in Victorian London!

The Cocoon itself resembles nothing as much as a huge dinosaur egg waiting to hatch. What strikes me is how well scientific content is explored within. Circulation through a ramp down 3 floors is punctuated by incredibly beautiful showcases with specimens pinned into the glass panes. The design language seems to preserve the beauty of nature as intact as possible - I seemed to be breathing outdoors, the colours and the freshness of the specimens on show bringing to mind simply the freshness of life and nature outside.

This is quite a feat - to maintain intact the beauty of nature while dissecting it. High tech interactives accompany interpretative insights into the processes of science as a human endeavour - visitors can peek at scientists poring over their research benches and all interpretation - down to the voice in the lift - is delivered by real scientists at the NHM. This is a solid attempt at demistifying science and positioning it in the minds of youngsters and adults alike as human activity. It is refreshing, interpretatively successful and while targetting a younger audience not simplistic or juvenile.

And humour comes in handy, too, in the overarching interpretative approach. The installation I photographed below focuses on a very simple but crucial scientific challenge - that of categorisation. At school we learnt about taxonomy through the study of heavy Latin texts - the Linnean system of Regnum Animale, Vegetabile et Lapideum. From there, the levels were divided into classes, and again into orders genera and species. But the relevance of this was never obvious enough to turn the lesson into something more interesting than a mnemonic exercise. But we categorise and organise every single instant of our lives. By colour, material, shape or sound; by cost, feel, or relevance to the moment... in what we do, or choose to wear; in whom we do what with, in where we go and why. Clusters of complex reasoning, instantaneous decisions made and then reviewed continuously. This process is captured in the miscellaneous selection of unrelated objects displayed in this showcase. By simply surprising our logic capability, it challenges our thinking. Why are these things displayed together? In a sense, it captures the very essence of museological display.